


Remember who you are, you are my son

by RosemaryDaisy



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Din can have a little growth, Gen, Post-Episode: s02e07 The Believer, as a treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28133679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosemaryDaisy/pseuds/RosemaryDaisy
Summary: For the second time in 24 hours Din breathes unfiltered air.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda
Comments: 4
Kudos: 108





	Remember who you are, you are my son

Some hunters, he's sure, take pride in each hit. He's heard them talk of it, in skuggy cantinas and shadowed alleyways. He's even heard them proclaim it in the brightly lit bazaars of some of the galaxy's nastiest outposts, where crime and its ilk stand sure in the sun: uncovered, unseemly, shameless. Some describe feeling victorious, celebratory. Others take an entitled sort of satisfaction; they deserve their spoils. They are just taking what should have been theirs to begin with.

Din Djarin could never relate. His work and his creed. His success and his peoples' survival. All were linked so tightly, he could untangle them no easier than he could take off his helmet. If Din felt pride, it was in seeing the fruits of his hunt strengthen his community. But he has known since he was a much younger man that sticking around to enjoy success isn't a luxury he can afford. So he leaves pride behind. He moves forward. He hunts. 

\--

He sinned. 

\--

He believed. 

\--

For the second time in 24 hours Din breathes unfiltered air. But this time, he's calm. 

As the white lights of the Imperial cruiser meet his eyes unimpeded, Din doesn't struggle to match Gideon's stare. He knows his strengths. He may not be a stealth operator. May not be able to shine when masquerading as another. But here? In his armor? Standing unabashedly as himself? Here he is fighting for his everything. For his pride -- his son. This, he can do. This, he _must _do.__

__Din is confident. Finally Din feels clarity, fully stepping out of the fog he has stumbled through since Tython. Blow after blow has threatened to knock him off course, but his connection to the child has cut through the pain each time. Even after his attempted message to Bo-Katan went unanswered. Even after the expected difficulties of boarding the enemy craft. Even without knowledge of how his allies were faring against the troopers. Now, in the same space as the man responsible, these uncertainties fade away. Every nerve is attuned to his mission._ _

__"Din Djarin. Child of the Watch. How does it feel to lose everything?"_ _

__Despite countless face-offs with mid-level scum, Din has to admit that Gideon is the first true maniac he has ever gone head-to-head with. He hadn't known they were as dramatic in real life as the holodramas made them out to be. There was some satisfaction in knowing that Gideon could see his skeptically raised eyebrows._ _

__"The child lives," Din responds with certainty. When Fennec and he had taken the control room, they'd seen live footage of the child in a room that was now just one doorway away. Besides, Gideon wouldn't be engaging with him if the child was gone. "I have not lost what is most important."_ _

__"Ah! There you go again," Gideon murmurs as he moves along the corridor away from Din. "I must say, I was surprised at the candor in your little message. Why arm me with the knowledge of how deep your connection is with this...thing?"_ _

__Gideon is too smart to fire with the blaster he has clasped in his hand. It can never pierce the beskar, and even with his face unprotected, Din has faith. As Gideon holsters his weapon, Din licks his lips, anticipating an early surrender._ _

__"I thought I would level the playing field," Din said while adjusting his grip on the spear. "If you've listened to the stories you'll know there's no true match for a Mandalorian separated from a member of their clan."_ _

__Gideon's expression shifts as he positions himself in front of the door that Din knows separates them from the child. It confuses Din, but he nonetheless continues slowly pursuing his prey before Gideon responds. "Yes, it would be a fearsome weapon indeed that could match that impressive new spear of yours. If the noises I've heard already this evening are any indication, the Dark Troopers could not stand up to it, no?"_ _

__Din can now read Gideon's expression -- the confidence is fairly dripping off his honeyed smile. But why? What had he not foreseen? His scans of this area showed he had successfully dispatched all of the troopers when they pursued him near the bridge. What does Gideon have up his -_ _

__As Din's thoughts skip back and forth between different tactical possibilities, Gideon pulls a hilt from inside his left sleeve before pressing a button to reveal a...lightsaber? Like the weapons wielded by Ahsoka Tano, but also...unlike. Immediately he thought of the child. This Jedi stuff would not stop following them._ _

__Done with the protracted conversation, Din chooses not to allow Gideon another moment of smug dominance. He opens with a jab intended for Gideon's unprotected stomach. Either because the move was predictable on its own or because he telegraphed his next step on his face, Gideon is ready and easily deflects with the saber.  
  
The moment of connection with the saber sends reverberations down Din's hands and up through his vambraces unlike any he has experienced while wielding the spear so far. He feels pain like he has never felt before. The reverberations seem to seep into his bones, waves that don't stop crashing until the air is knocked from his lungs and a foreign psychic weight settles in his brain. It is as if each blow he has sustained during the earlier fighting is converging on his core, and he feels bruised down to the muscles of his beating heart. The agony of the experience could account for more pain than the average being feels in a lifetime, but for Din it hits and dissipates in under a minute. He staggers back to the wall opposite Gideon and the door he so desperately needs to breach. Gideon appears unaffected, and though his earlier smile has made way for a clenched grimace, his eyes still tell of victory, celebration. _ _

__Din straightens up as his reaction fades, and his mind casts for thoughts of the child to bolster his will to fight. It's a strategy that has served him well over the last two days without the child by his side. When he thinks of the child now, however, his mind doesn't conjure happier memories spent together on the Crest, as it usually does. Instead he feels a mixture of hope and anticipation, and sees the flash of a picture in his mind's eye. He sees a door, identical to the one blocked by Gideon, but he sees it from below, as if he were sitting on the floor. He knows instinctively that he is experiencing the child's feelings, and seeing his thoughts. Din feels a pull to collapse to the ground even stronger than the one he felt while wracked with pain._ _

__But no. The gratitude at being allowed this access into the child's thoughts _could _break him down. This monumental privilege that he feels so undeserving of _could _crush him under its weight. But he is a Mandalorian, and this is what he is meant to do._____ _

______"Grogu?"_ _ _ _ _ _

______Din's question has an opposite effect on each of the men poised in the corridor. While Gideon appears thrown for the first time, Din's barely upright posture shifts into an imposing stance. His lips pull back from his teeth and he grips the spear with both hands. He feints left with the spear before bringing his hands over his head and turning in place with the spear always pointed towards his foe. His next hit lands, piercing and cracking the armor on Gideon's left shoulder. Gideon swings wildly and their weapons meet again, but this time it is not pain that Din feels. His connection to the child has protected him; he feels only an amplification of his own strength._ _ _ _ _ _

______The fight continues, and now Gideon is rendered speechless. No more quips as they trade blows, nothing but the sound of their weapons clashing and their feet dancing on the reflective floor. Gideon is formidable with the saber, but Din has more experience as a fighter. Din flips the spear in his hands, thrusting and parrying with the blunt end. He pulls back and throws himself forward with all the energy he has left. Gideon is ready, and their blades connect. Neither lets up, and Gideon's imposing figure is a fair counter for Din's compact strength. Gideon's eyes betray little emotion -- neither cockiness nor concern shines through his dark gaze. Din, however, expends no energy hiding his emotions. He is snarling as he rarely does in battle. He is hopeful and tired. Furious and determined. He's glad Gideon can see his face. Takes pleasure in turning what Gideon assumed would be the perfect way to break him as a Mandalorian into his own intimidation tactic._ _ _ _ _ _

______Din pushes forward one step, then two. He slowly approaches the point where their blades are joined, all while pushing the dull end of the spear farther, almost past Gideon's head. The tension builds with neither fighter conceding and stepping back. Din waits, with all of his attention trained on Gideon and all of his strength dedicated to keeping their weapons locked._ _ _ _ _ _

______Until he lets up._ _ _ _ _ _

______Din momentarily loosens both of his hands so they are open to the ceiling and cradling the spear instead of grasping them. Before Gideon can regain his balance Din drops to his knees and uses the weight of the spear to his advantage, pulling the hand further forward on the shaft towards himself and flipping the spear. With the sharpened tip once again trained on Gideon, in one fluid motion Din hits his mark._ _ _ _ _ _

______Does he feel pride in the hit? No, his focus is elsewhere. On the child. Still, as long as Gideon breathes Din knows that the job is not yet done. He stands from his position on the floor, keeping both hands on the spear and pushing Gideon until his back hits the wall. Gideon is gasping for breath, but despite being skewered on Din's spear the saber is still alight and in his hand. Din brings his left foot up and pins Gideon's hand to the wall as well, applying pressure until the saber falls to the ground.  
Din feels no remorse as he twists the spear in Gideon's gut, before yanking it out and allowing Gideon to fall. _ _ _ _ _ _

______Gideon drops, but does not wail. His heaving breaths continue even as they slow, and he tilts his head to hold Din's eye._ _ _ _ _ _

______"Don't think...you will escape..." Each word clearly pained him, but he pressed on. "Do you think...we only made four...Dark Troopers?"_ _ _ _ _ _

______Din pulls out his blaster and fires two to the Imperial's head. Gideon was dead._ _ _ _ _ _

______Sparing no further thought to Gideon's dying words, Din turns and fires at the control panel next to the door. Sparks fly and Din crosses the threshold before the door has fully opened._ _ _ _ _ _

_______The door slides closed behind Din and he hears the lock engage automatically. Brown eyes meet brown eyes across the now meager space that separates the two. Din crosses the room in three strides and kneels on the floor in front of the bench. He closes his ears to the slow rhythmic sound of Dark Troopers approaching but does not break eye contact with the child. Their eyes don't leave each others' even as Din uses his knife blade to cut the shackles off of the child's sweet hands.  
  
The child makes very little noise, something that would worry Din if he weren't more overwhelmed at their reunion. How could he have ever thought that pride had no place in his life? He is overcome. He brushes one hand gently across the child's brow and spares a thought to wonder if his bare face has confused the situation at all. Immediately a feeling of certainty and connection fills him, and he has an answer to his question: The child knows him. _ _ _ _ _

______"Grogu." Din breaks off briefly and the child blinks but makes no sound. "Grogu. I know your name as my child."_ _ _ _ _ _

______Peace rises and crests in him, alternating emotions from his own experience and that of his child. Din has a vague awareness that blaster fire has joined the steady noise of approaching attackers; he cannot tear his focus away from his child for long enough to wonder if that is a good sign._ _ _ _ _ _

______Din circles Grogu's waist with both hands, and raises him up off the bench._ _ _ _ _ _

______A boom sounds outside the room, rattling the door to this prison turned sanctuary._ _ _ _ _ _

______He bends his neck in order to softly touch their foreheads together._ _ _ _ _ _

______A second loud slam threatens the safety of father and son, united at last._ _ _ _ _ _

______Two small, dear hands reach up and scrabble at the sides of Din's face._ _ _ _ _ _

______The final hit comes, and the door slides away._ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
